Ethel Callahan's warm smile and heart made her one for the ages

Simply put, Ethel Callahan loved life -- and she lived it to the fullest, even during her final years at D'Youville Senior Care Center, where she moved after a fall at age 100.

Callahan died at D'Youville on Sunday. She was 104. Her funeral Mass was to be held at 10 a.m. today at St. Michael's Church, where she was baptized and was the church's oldest communicant.

"She had lots of friends at D'Youville and never had a down day," said Dolores Green, her long-time friend and regular Thursday lunch companion.

"She thrived there," agreed Jan Hylan, her neighbor and friend. "Ethel was a social butterfly and loved the activities and engaging with friends there."

Callahan enjoyed her independence for a full century, driving, volunteering and living alone until she was 99.

But she downplayed it in a profile about her in The Sun, which ran in July 2007 after a surprise birthday party her friends had thrown for her.

The profile began: "Ethel Callahan was born on the Fourth of July -- July 4, 1908, to be exact. And she still sparkles like the brightest fireworks in the sky."

"But," the story continued, "reaching this illustrious age -- and still driving, volunteering and living alone -- isn't a big deal to Callahan. It's just something that happened... longevity runs among the women in her family.

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"I always ate everything and don't know how it happened. All the women in my family reached their 90's," she told The Sun reporter.

Callahan was a middle child -- the third of George and Katherine "Katie" Roark Callahan's five children. Mary and Genevieve were her older sisters and Alice and George, Jr. were her younger sister and brother. She outlived them all.

A Centralville girl all her life, Callahan was born on Beech Street and lived on Humphrey, Third and Mort streets through the years.

Callahan remembered playing tag in the street and "chumming" with all the kids in the neighborhood.

She wasn't much of a student, she told The Sun. But she landed a place in the elite Girl Officers at Lowell High, a group of 40 uniformed young women selected to lead other students in exercises and be leaders at the annual Field Day.

"You tried out and you waited and waited. I was very excited and glad I'd been accepted," she said.

Callahan graduated from Lowell High in 1926 and took a job selling tickets at the Strand, one of Lowell's storied movie theaters on Central Street. She also worked at Woolworth's each Saturday, earning $1.10 per day and turning over her paycheck to her mother.

Soon the telephone company beckoned and she worked for more information 42 years for New England Telephone, now Verizon Communications, in Lowell and Boston.

Callahan never married or had any nieces or nephews. But when she retired at age 62, a whole new world opened to her when she became a community volunteer.

She was a member and president of the League of Catholic Women, a board member of Merrimack Valley Catholic Charities and, most notably, a longstanding volunteer at Saints Medical Center, managing the front desk for more than 35 years until she stepped down at age 99.

"Ethel Callahan bridged all generations with her warm smile and generous heart. She served as a true ambassador for the healing mission of Saints and all who needed the help of the hospital. She will be missed," said Kevin Coughlin, former vice president of Saints and current executive director of the Greater Lowell Health Alliance.

Wanderlust took her many places as well -- Ireland, Greece, Rome, Bermuda, the Rose Bowl.

"I loved traveling and met nice people that I have been friendly with for years," Callahan told The Sun.

And her friends sustained her through the years.

"My friends take good care of me," she said.

Among them are Hylan and Green.

"She was like family to us," said Hylan.

"I learned a lot from Ethel about growing old gracefully. Without a doubt, she died the way she lived -- with great dignity," said Green.

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